Donnie Wahlberg’s NYC detective explores new territory and a new partner (Sonequa Martin-Green) in the ‘Blue Bloods’ spinoff
On a set in late September, Donnie Wahlberg is happily chowing down, as his beloved Blue Bloods character Det. Danny Reagan is once again enjoying a family dinner full of lively debate and jokes. This time, however, the set is in Toronto, not New York, and the show is that iconic police family drama’s first spinoff, Boston Blue. The law enforcement family at Boston Blue’s center is the Silvers, and the meal is a Friday night Shabbat celebration complete with candle lighting, Hebrew blessings, a challah bread on the table, and a Baptist minister delivering a non-denominational prayer.
As we know, Wahlberg and the Blue Blood team fought hard to keep CBS from canceling the much-loved show after its 14th season. When their efforts failed, Wahlberg says, “I was eager to continue the Blue Bloods universe in the context of a spinoff.” So when the opportunity came to continue with Danny Reagan, he was all in. “It was my chance to carry on Blue Blood’s legacy, but I also understand the responsibility of it and the weight of expectations.”
Boston Blue cocreators Brandon Sonnier and Brandon Margolis’ original show idea, about a Los Angeles cop transferring to Boston, was not planned as a Blue Bloods spinoff. Since Wahlberg was looking for a new home for his character, however, they couldn’t resist the suggestion to change the protagonist to the already well-known NYC detective Danny Reagan.
Sonnier, who describes himself as “a huge Blue Bloods fan,” was particularly pleased with the idea. The producer got into the show big time while he was recuperating in 2019 after he lost his lower right leg in an on-set stunt gone wrong while working on L.A.’s Finest. “I got to thinking,” he says, “I love this family. This family is like my family, but this family doesn’t look like my family. I am African-American, my wife is Jewish, and my children are a perfect shade of in between. We are a Jewish family, though I was raised Catholic.” That spurred the producers to work with CBS Studios and Jerry Bruckheimer Television on the spinoff with a family “that had the same sort of values as the Reagans, but with a diverse multicultural family like mine. I got to put my family on television, wrapped in the morals, truth-seeking, and justice-seeking world of the Blue Bloods universe.”
Wahlberg was thrilled that the spinoff was to be set in the actor/singer’s beloved hometown. “It almost knocked me off my feet and made the pitch so enticing and exciting,” he says. Unfortunately, for the Red Sox fan, most of the show is shot in Toronto, but Wahlberg promises, “we’re filming in Boston too.” That includes a fun trip to Fenway Park in the second episode when Danny sets up a bonding trip to a Mets/Red Sox game with his son Sean, now a rookie cop in Beantown. The show got permission to shoot during practice and while the game was ongoing. It was a definite high point for Wahlberg and Margolis, a Mets fan.
There’s no doubt that there are lots of similarities to Blue Bloods on Boston Blue, which should attract fans of the original series. Both could be described as family-friendly police shows wrapped around optimistic families comprised of decent people solving problems over food. Mirroring its predecessor’s most loved segment, “the dinner table is the heartbeat of our show,” says Maggie Lawson (Psych), who plays Sarah Silver, the Boston Police Department’s Superintendent. “It’s a place where family and friends argue, debate, and challenge each other—and then they laugh and reconnect.”
“The Silvers are a family that believes in faith, tradition, loyalty, and service. Their diversity in religion and race offers viewers an opportunity to connect in a multitude of ways,” says Gloria Reuben (ER, Mr. Robot), who, as DA Mae Silver, like Erin Reagan before her, sometimes takes opposing positions from her three adult children, all of whom are with the Boston police force.
Boston Blue’s Shabbat dinners are a bit more welcoming than the Reagan family’s Sunday night meal, which rarely included guests. Mae has an open-door policy for friends to join them on Friday evenings. Two of those are Danny and Sean, now played by Canadian actor Mika Amonsen (Thanksgiving), who replaced Andrew Terraciano on the show. Sean has already been a frequent guest at the Silvers, having been in Boston for a year, attending the city’s police academy when the NYPD declared a hiring freeze.
When Sean’s local plans were nixed, Danny suggested Boston and his younger son left to fulfill his dream to be a police officer, following in his father’s footsteps. (Sean didn’t want his grandfather, Tom Selleck‘s police commissioner Frank Reagan, to pull any strings to bypass the new edict.)
“It’s kind of surreal that I was watching Andrew grow up on screen back then, and now I’m stepping into that same world,” says Amonsen. “I went back to his later episodes to study his dynamic with Danny and his humor. And I’ve tried to carry over that warmth, his dad’s stubborn streak, and a quiet intelligence that really feels like a Reagan,” he explains.
“Mika is phenomenal,” Wahlberg gushes. “It is usually an arduous process recasting a role, but we found a very special actor who the audience is going to fall in love with.” Amonsen feels the same as he talks about his onscreen father. “Donnie is incredible! He’s full of energy, cracking jokes, and the second the cameras roll, he’s laser-focused. He’s also been so generous, both as a scene partner and by giving me advice on stepping into long-running franchises. He makes you feel like family from day one.”
Speaking of family. An unexpected—and possibly controversial for fans—scene in New York is interrupted in the pilot, when a call urges Danny to get up to Boston to check on Sean “after something pretty intense happens,” says Wahlberg. His sister and Sean’s aunt, Erin Reagan (Bridget Moynahan), also travels to Boston to give emotional support to both father and son. (She is just the first of several popular Blue Bloods alums to make guest appearances this season.)
John Medland / CBS
After spending time with Sean, Danny has an unplanned meeting with Lena (Sonequa Martin-Green), who is workingon a murder case involving a fire. While he has no professional job in Boston, Danny comes to the murder site with a personal reason eating him up. Though he has no brief to meddle in an investigation, Danny’s spidey sense encourages him to check out a guy looking at the site where the crime was committed. When Danny sees him, the perp starts running. Danny takes chase. Lena spots Danny running, pulls out her gun, and stops him. It’s not quite a cute meet, but after some “Beantown/Brooklyn and badge/shield quips” between them, there’s a quick resolution when she discovers he’s Sean’s dad. They work the scene together and find a clue that the guy who got away left.
The duo head over to Lena’s police station — “a much better, more modern station than the old rundown one we had in New York” — notes Wahlberg happily. Danny is introduced to both Lena’s stepsister, the superintendent, and their mom, Mae, the DA, and soon there are disagreements over the use of racially sensitive facial recognition tools to catch probable perps. It’s the kinds of law and order disagreements Blue Blood fans will recognize from spats over the years at Frank Reagan’s home.
When Sarah learns what brings Danny to Boston and how important it is, she gives him permission to help Lena with her investigation. And so, Wahlberg adds, begins “a phenomenal partnership.” They discover they are very much alike as detectives from police families, and they understand each other. Danny, of course, can be a bull in a China shop, so he will have to navigate his way in this new situation. On screen, no doubt, Danny will annoy Lena many times, but behind the scenes, “they’re great friends,” says Martin-Green. “Playing law enforcement is super exciting and super humbling, and I want to do the character, the story, and the franchise justice. Danny had done an amazing job of welcoming me into the franchise, as he has with everyone else. He’s a great leader in that way.”
John Medland / CBS
The pilot, of course, can’t conclude without the family dinner, and both Danny and Erin are invited to the Shabbat dinner. Wahlberg describes his first meal on set with his new team as “very emotional and very sweet. I marvel every day at the cast that I get to work with. I no longer look across the table and see Tom Selleck, but now I looked across the table and I see the wonderful Gloria Reuben and Ernie Hudson. He and I are old friends since we made a movie together. (1998’s Never 2 Big).” At Danny’s first dinner, he starts to cross himself, and then stops, wondering if he can do that at a Shabbat dinner. Though Rev. Peters is Baptist and Danny (and Sean) are Catholic, they are both Christian, and the pastor OKs the gesture. As Hudson puts it, “It doesn’t matter how you pray. What’s important is that you pray.”
The dinner experience helps Danny make a life-changing decision, seeing how important the Silver family has been to Sean and how they gave him a safe space to be since he is without his own family. He will stay as long as Sean needs him, a good sign — from Heaven? — that his temporary partnership with the BPD’s Detective Silver will soon become permanent.
Boston Blue, Series Premiere, Friday, October 17, 10/9c, CBS